"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
"A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places." -Isabelle Eberhardt
Ever since my declaration to go to grad school for Folklore, preferably in OR, I’ve had a nagging feeling it is still not the right thing. The two main reasons are it would involve going into more student loan debt and the whole moving thing. I am throwing around the idea of creating my own education path, one that doesn’t involve traditional education. Then I ask myself if this is out of fear or because it makes the most sense. It is a very difficult conversation to have with yourself because how do you know yourself is being honest with yourself?!
Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to the Ladies Brunch League where I brought up my dilemma. I was given so many good ideas and two questions/suggestions really hit home. The first is if I NEED the degree for what I hope to do with Folklore. The answer is most likely no because my goal isn’t to enter into academia. The second is, for how much this degree will cost, can I take trips and figure out a way to talk to people about their folklore and write about my experiences. The answer is YES! That would be amazing. The program will cost approximately $60k. I can definitely work in some good trips for that much money. The Ladies threw out a few other ideas of groups/activities I have been thinking about and have not yet tried out, mostly due to stranger danger etc. Toastmasters , Lighthouse Writers and The Moth all came up.
The topic of folklore is so broad. I was having a hard time figuring out what arena I would like to focus. When I really think about it, it all comes down to storytelling, which is what makes Toastmasters, Lighthouse Writers and The Moth all really perfect areas for me to get started. I am not sure yet if the goal is for me to become a storyteller or to somehow document other people’s stories. This is all part of the journey.
The brunch conversation was really helpful for me. Only one of the other Ladies knew me so the rest of them could give me unbiased advice. They are all Ladies working towards/with their passions and it is refreshing to hear them agree, when I expressed not wanting to give up everything and go all in how I originally planned, to instead create my own way of doing.
- NEW TO-DO LIST:
- -Join a Toastmasters group. I found one on Wednesday nights at a VFW!
- -Get myself to a Moth performance night. There is one coming up July 19th. Anyone want to join?
- -Sign up and actually attend a Lighthouse Writers workshop. I signed up for a Friday Happy Hour event there one time and chickened out.
- -I am still going to attend the Women’s Folklore class at Metro in the fall. I need to rethink Spanish. I am also signed up for that in the fall but the point of that is I need two years of foreign language for grad school. So while learning Spanish is still on my to-do list, maybe I don’t do it at college and instead plan an immersion trip.
That seems like enough for now. I guess this is the way The ONE Thing goes. I can’t get too stuck on it going exactly one way or the other. I have to be open to it ever evolving. The number one goal is to show up. I nearly chickened out of going to brunch. I am so glad I made myself go.
Today begins my self-directed study of Folklore and Storytelling.
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